Micro-implanter for hair follicle

ABSTRACT

A micro-implanter for hair follicle includes a plunger and a hair follicle holding tube coaxially fitted around the plunger. A hair follicle may be positioned in the hair follicle holding tube below the plunger. The plunger is provided at a lower end with a stopper for limiting a depth by which the hair follicle is implanted into a mini implanting slit cut on a bald scalp. The hair follicle holding tube has a lower end formed into a tapered and narrowed section to facilitate easy insertion of the hair follicle holding tube into the mini implanting slit. When the hair follicle holding tube has been inserted into the mini implanting slit on the scalp, the plunger may be pushed forward to implant the hair follicle into the mini implanting slit.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a hair implanter, and more particularlyto a micro-implanter for hair follicle that facilitates quick implantingof a hair follicle into a bald scalp to avoid damage, breaking, anddeath of the hair follicle during the implantation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The hair implantation technique has been largely improved over the pastdecade. A so-called microscopic hair follicle implantation technique hasbeen widely employed throughout the world to treat male patternedbaldness, i.e. Androgenetic Alopecia. In this hair implantationtechnique, each hair follicle is independently implanted into the scalp.The hair follicles used in the microscopic hair implantation arerelocated from a donor site, which is usually a back of the head, to abalding area of the patient's scalp. Each hair follicle normally has oneto four hairs, as shown in FIG. 1. And, each hair follicle has adiameter about 1-2 mm, and a length about 6-7 mm, and is therefore verytiny and soft.

There are various kinds of hair implanters available in the market.However, most of the currently available hair implanters have big volumeand are not suitable for use in the microscopic hair follicleimplantation. Up to date, hair follicles are implanted by a surgeonusing forceps. That is, the surgeon uses forceps to clip a root portionof the hair follicle, and forces the hair follicle into an implantinghole pierced on the bald scalp. The implanting hole is usually formed bypiercing the bald scalp using a needle, which normally has a small gagenumber of 18 or 19. Therefore, the implanting hole is very small insize. It is uneasy to force a hair follicle into such a small hole. Thehair follicle would very possibly be damaged by the forceps, or becomebroken or dead in the course of forceps implantation when it could notbe successfully implanted into the tiny implanting hole for severaltimes. The tight clipping of the hair follicle with the forceps wouldalso cause follicle death. These are the difficulties often encounteredby the surgeons in the microscopic hair follicle implantation.

It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop a micro-implanter forhair follicle to solve the problems encountered in the existingmicroscopic hair follicle implantation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A micro-implanter for hair follicle according to the present inventionincludes a plunger and a hair follicle holding tube coaxially fittedaround the plunger. A hair follicle is positioned in the hair follicleholding tube below the plunger. The plunger is provided at a lower endwith a stopper, which is guided by an axial open slot on the hairfollicle holding tube to move upward and downward for limiting a depthby which the hair follicle is implanted into a mini implanting slit cuton a bald scalp. The hair follicle holding tube has a lower end formedinto a tapered and narrowed section to facilitate easy insertion of thehair follicle holding tube into the mini implanting slit. When the hairfollicle holding tube has been inserted into the mini implanting slit onthe scalp, the plunger may be pushed forward to completely implant thehair follicle into the mini implanting slit. In this manner, the hairfollicle is protected against damage, breaking or death in the course ofimplantation, because there is no forceps to clip the root portion ofthe hair follicle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present inventionto achieve the above and other objects can be best understood byreferring to the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 schematically shows that each hair follicle has one to threehairs;

FIG. 2 is an assembled perspective view of a micro-implanter for hairfollicle according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the micro-implanter for hairfollicle of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the micro-implanter for hair follicle ofthe present invention with one hair follicle held therein;

FIGS. 6A to 6D show the steps of implanting the hair follicle to a scalpusing the micro-implanter for hair follicle of the present invention;and

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a plurality of micro-implanter forhair follicles of the present invention having the hair follicle heldtherein are used at the same time to implant multiple hair folliclesinto the scalp.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIGS. 2 through 5, in which a micro-implanter for hairfollicle 10 according to a preferred embodiment of the present inventionis shown. The micro-implanter for hair follicle 10 of the presentinvention is made of a non-toxic tough plastic material, such aspolypropylene, or a stainless steel material. As shown in theillustrated drawings, the micro-implanter for hair follicle 10 includesa plunger 11 and a hair follicle holding tube 20. The plunger 11 has around cross section, and includes an upper end 12 and a lower end 13.The lower end 13 of the plunger 11 has a radially outward projectedstopper 14, which has a tapered bottom 15. The stopper 14 with thetapered bottom 15 has the function of limiting a depth by which a hairfollicle 30 is implanted into a mini implanting slit 32 on a bald scalp31, and preventing the plunger 11 from skidding off the bald scalp 31,as shown in FIG. 6B.

The hair follicle holding tube 20 defines an axial bore 21 for receivingthe plunger 11 therein, so that the plunger 11 may be moved in the hairfollicle holding tube 20 toward or away from the scalp 31. A lower endof the hair follicle holding tube 20 is formed into a tapered andnarrowed section 22 with a beveled surface 23 provided at an outermostend of the tapered and narrowed section 22, so that the hair follicleholding tube 20 may be quickly inserted into the mini implanting slit 32on the bald scalp 31, as shown in FIG. 6B. The hair follicle holdingtube 20 is provided with an open slot 24 axially upward extended fromthe lower end of the tapered and narrowed section 22 by a predetermineddistance, so that the stopper 14 of the plunger 11 is guided by the openslot 24 to move upward and downward along the hair follicle holding tube20.

As can be seen from FIG. 4, the plunger 11 is initially located at aretracted position in the hair follicle holding tube 20, with thestopper 14 abutted on a flat upper end 25 of the open slot 24. When thetapered and narrowed section 22 of the hair follicle holding tube 20 isinserted into the mini implanting slit 32, as shown in FIG. 6B, a forceis applied to the upper end of the plunger 11 to move the plunger 11forward from the retracted position shown in FIG. 4, bringing thestopper 14 to move forward along the open slot 24. The lower end of theplunger 11 would push the hair follicle 30 held in the lower end of thetube 20 toward the scalp 31, until the tapered bottom 15 of the stopper14 is in contact with the scalp 31, as shown in FIG. 6C. In this manner,the hair follicle 30 could be completely implanted in the miniimplanting slit 32. The tapered bottom 15 of the stopper 14 contactingwith the scalp 31 functions to limit the depth by which the hairfollicle 30 is implanted into the mini implanting slit 32.

Please refer to FIG. 5. The hair follicle 30 is positioned in the bore21 by using forceps to hold the epithelium of the hair follicle 30 andmoving the hair follicle 30 along the open slot 24 of the hair follicleholding tube 20 into the bore 21 to locate below the plunger 11.

FIGS. 6A to 6D show the steps of using the micro-implanter for hairfollicle 10 of the present invention to implant hair follicles into abald scalp 31. In Step 1, a plurality of mini implanting slits 32 arecut on a bald scalp 31, as shown in FIG. 6A. In Step 2, an insertionforce is applied to one hair follicle holding tube 20 to insert thetapered and narrowed section 22 thereof into one of the mini implantingslits 32, so that a hair follicle 30 held in the lower end of the hairfollicle holding tube 20 is implanted into the mini implanting slit 32;and the plunger 11 is pushed toward the scalp 31 until the taperedbottom 15 of the stopper 14 is in contact with the scalp 31, as shown inFIG. 6B. In Step 3, the hair follicle holding tube 20 is extracted fromthe mini implanting slit 32 while the hair follicle 30 is left at apredetermined position in the mini implanting slit 32, as shown in FIG.6C. And, in Step 4, the plunger 11 is withdrawn from the scalp 31, andthe hair follicle 30 is completely implanted into the mini implantingslit 32, as shown in FIG. 6D.

Please refer to FIG. 7. For the purpose of implanting the hair folliclesmore efficiently, a plurality of micro-implanter for hair follicles 10,each of which having one hair follicle 30 held therein, are insertedinto multiple mini implanting slits 32 cut on the bald scalp 31 in oneor two rows, and the hair follicles 32 are pushed by the plungers 11into the mini implanting slits 32 one by one.

The micro-implanter for hair follicle 10 of the present invention hasthe advantages of small volume and low weight to allow the hair follicle30 to be quickly implanted into the mini implanting slit 32 cut on thebald scalp 31. In the course of implanting, the micro-implanter for hairfollicle 10 does not directly touch a hair root portion of the hairfollicle 30 to avoid damaging the hair follicle 30. Moreover, since thehair follicle 30 is positioned in the hair follicle holding tube 20before being implanted into the mini implanting slit 32, the hairfollicle 30 is protected against breaking and death in the event ofrepeated implantation.

The present invention has been described with a preferred embodimentthereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in thedescribed embodiment can be carried out without departing from the scopeand the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only bythe appended claims.

1. A micro-implanter for hair follicle for implanting hair folliclesinto mini implanting slits cut on a bald scalp, comprising: a plungerhaving an upper end and a lower end; and a hair follicle holding tubedefining an axial bore, in which said plunger is axially movablyreceived and a hair follicle is positioned below the lower end of saidplunger; whereby when said hair follicle holding tube is inserted intoone of the mini implanting slits on the scalp, a force may be applied tothe upper end of said plunger to thereby approach said hair follicle insaid hair follicle holding tube to said mini implanting slit until saidhair follicle is completely implanted into said mini implanting slit. 2.The micro-implanter for hair follicle as claimed in claim 1, whereinsaid hair follicle holding tube has a lower end formed into a taperedand narrowed section, and said tapered and narrowed section has anoutermost end formed into a beveled surface to facilitate quickinsertion of said hair follicle holding tube into said mini implantingslit.
 3. The micro-implanter for hair follicle as claimed in claim 1,wherein said hair follicle holding tube is provided with an open slotaxially upward extended from the lower end of said hair follicle holdingtube by a predetermined distance.
 4. The micro-implanter for hairfollicle as claimed in claim 3, wherein said plunger is provided at thelower end with a stopper, and said stopper being axially movablyreceived in said open slot on said hair follicle holding tube, so as tolimit a depth by which said hair follicle is implanted into said miniimplanting slit.
 5. The micro-implanter for hair follicle as claimed inclaim 4, wherein said stopper of said plunger has a tapered bottom forpreventing said plunger from skidding off the bald scalp.